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SALT LAKE CITY — Gladys Ashitey is planning to run for political office and to boost her campaign, she is asking each resident of Utah — especially Ute fans — to give a dollar.
In fact, she may have already asked you for it, as the 56-year-old medical doctor and recent University of Utah graduate has visited countless religious congregations and befriended hundreds during her two-year stay.
Ashitey is now setting her sights on taking back her former seat as the minister of health in the Ledzokuku Constituency of the Ghanaian parliament. Voting day is at the end of the year, on Dec. 7.
"You people use millions (to campaign) here. About $200,000 will be OK for me," she said. Donations can be made online at www.AshiteyforParliament.com. "Even one dollar will go a long way in Ghana."
You people use millions (to campaign) here. About $200,000 will be OK for me. Even one dollar will go a long way in Ghana.
–Gladys Ashitey
Once in office, the ambitious Ashitey hopes to build a private medical school in Ghana, to train more doctors, provide more jobs and not only help keep the local people healthy, but build the country's infrastructure. And just like any politician, she'll continually be looking for donors.
"I have a lot of work to do," she said.
It all stems from things she learned while participating in the university's renowned master's of public health program.
"We have to be role models so that the youth who are growing up will have something to emulate and see what life is all about," Ashitey said. "They need to see how it is possible to use your life to help your neighbor, to help your community, and to help your country."
In addition to attending 10-plus years of graduate and undergraduate school in the United States and the Caribbean, and working almost a decade in a teaching hospital in her hometown of Teshie, the ambitious Ashitey has helped her province gain independence from the larger city of Accra. She has also lobbied Chinese charity groups to build a hospital in the region, which is one of the first government developments the nation has seen in decades.
"If I live here and continue to live here, and look for a job here, my contribution would not be much," she said. "I have to go back."
Ashitey, who didn't know how to use a computer until coming to the U., has been instrumental in getting Dutch and Spanish investors to set up water processing plants on Ghana's southern coast. Water in the country is in short supply and is rationed to residents, she said. The plants would help to desalinate water from the vast Atlantic Ocean, thereby helping the region to flourish.
"Things are getting better for people there," she said. "People are now understanding what democracy is all about."
Ashitey has a dream that is almost as big as her gargantuan personality: that her country will come out of poverty and become an independent democracy.
"I want my people to live well, like Americans live — to have self-contained housing and jobs, to eat well and take care of their children," she said. "Though it is a huge goal, if I keep talking about it and talking to as many people as I can, I know we will accomplish it someday."
Being in America, and specifically in Salt Lake City, Ashitey said she has learned that people can accomplish more when partnerships are forged.
The lack of infrastructure in Ghana has led to incalculable unemployment and skyrocketing high school dropout rates. Without promise, there is little left for the rising population to do in the struggling nation, which is why she believes things have to change.
"If our people are educated and have jobs, they are informed and they will understand why we should stay healthy and avoid disease," Ashitey said.
The people in Ghana, she said, "need to learn that ruling a nation is not done through struggle and strife and fighting each other all the time, but through democracy. That is something America has done so right."
Born into what little opportunity her country could offer in 1955, Ashitey has tried to instill a value of education in her children, who are also pursuing advanced degrees in the U.S. Each plans to return to Ghana to share their experience and knowledge and "to make the country better," she said. While she is sad to leave again, Ashitey is excited to finish what she started so many years ago in her first public office. She leaves for Ghana on Wednesday.
Ashitey and her husband, an Episcopalian priest and a pharmacist, have spent years traveling to rural areas in Ghana, delivering health care and medication to people in need. They have supported countless students to earn marketable degrees and to finish their schooling in local villages.
"People have told me that I dream too big. But if you don't dream, then nothing will ever become a reality," she said.
Email:wleonard@ksl.com
